I know that many of you have seen us standing on the side of Jericho Turnpike holding signs with sayings like "Do Not Take Our Homes" and "Pray for Us" while others have seen us on the news or have read about us in the newspaper or on our website. It doesn't seem to matter where we are or who we talk to, the question is always the same, "Do you really think you can win?" My answer is "yes!" The news, the press and the lawyers are all focusing on the legal issues facing the home owners at the Syosset Mobile Home Park, but there is much more at stake here than legalities.

No one can argue the fact that on April 2, 2007 Sanford Horowitz, president of HORMI Holding Co., Inc. sold a plot of land in Syosset to Larry Rush, Lawrence Feldman and Howard Avrutine, known collectively as STP Associates, LLC. What happened to morality in America? Has everyone forgotten what that is? Everyone is so focused on what is legal that they are overlooking the real crisis, the fact that 75 families call that plot of land HORMI sold to STP "home"!

We, the home owners at the Syosset Mobile Home Park came home on April 9, 2007 to find a two sentence letter in our mailboxes stating that our park had been sold to a developer called STP Associates, LLC. Now, everyone knows that a developer only buys land for one reason - to develop it. The moral issue is this: How did STP come to the conclusion that it is good business sense to buy an occupied community with plans of evicting all the families living there, just because they (STP) thought something other than a mobile home park should occupy that land? Don't our lives mean anything? Doesn't the fact that some of our residents have called the Syosset Mobile Home Park "home" for over 30 years mean anything to STP? How can STP be allowed to evict people from their homes just because STP feels the current residents of the Park are standing in the way of what is being called "progress"? Why are these three businessmen being allowed to decide the fate of all the families living at the Syosset Mobile Home Park? Why are the local authorities refusing to step in to stop this man-made tragedy that could lead to mass eviction from occurring?

These are our homes, this is where we tuck our children into bed at night, where we gather with our families for the holidays and where we found our slice of the American Dream. We will continue to put up a strong fight to protect our homes from being stolen from us!

I have spoken!

Marcy Rappaport